Schlock jocks Rob Ford and Doug Ford hang on to their Sunday pulpit at Newstalk 1010

The first talk radio hosts to ever get their wrists slapped by the City of Toronto’s integrity commissioner also happen to run the place.

Mayor Rob Ford and Councillor Doug Ford were reprimanded on Thursday by Janet Leiper for comments made on their brotherly Newstalk 1010 show, The City, over a report by the chief medical officer of health. The recommendation of lower speed limits for the sake of pedestrians and cyclists promoted Doug to ask, twice, why Dr. David McKeown still has a job.

But the censure has posed no threat to the Fords turning up for their volunteer shift this Sunday.

Mike Bendixen, the program director of Newstalk 1010, was well aware of the breach of city council’s code of conduct — after all, the station repeatedly reported on it — although there are no plans to change the extemporaneous approach to the 1-3 p.m. program whose tweeting listeners identify it with the hashtag #FoBroSho.

The City was taken over by the right-wing Fords in February after a year of being hosted by moderate city councillor Josh Matlow. Since then, notwithstanding a summer hiatus, it has provided a steady stream of newsworthy soundbites.

Last month, Rob and Doug used the platform to attack the Astral-owned station reporting — during the 2 p.m. newscast that runs in the middle of the show — that taxpayers footed some of the bill for a trade mission to Chicago.

The mechanics of the program still remain a bit of a mystery. Rumours have falsely persisted that the Fords are paying for the airtime — common practice on talk stations during the weekend. Some on Twitter have noticed a conspicuous lack of callers who disagree with the guys behind the mic — which any expert would tell you makes for terrible radio.

But Bendixen not only believes that even the most blustery Newstalk 1010 talents are saying exactly what they feel, he asserts that no personality on the station is exaggerating their point of view for the sake of stirring up attention. Therefore, he’s certainly not advising the Fords to try.

While the #FoBroSho has a two producers on the other side of the on-air booth, pushing buttons and screening calls, there are no plans to add any further babysitting into the mix after the integrity commissioner report — like a Ron MacLean to their two-headed Don Cherry. Getting a station regular to steer the ship might have been considered by Bendixen, at least initially, but it was ultimately decided to keep them at a distance from politicians they may talk about.

(On the other hand, a more seasoned sidekick might have discouraged Doug from calling Rob’s wife a “Polack,” as he did in June.)

Conversely, the 1010 program director claims the station has no hotline to the Fords when a story erupts during the week, as shown by the fact that competitor AM 640 got Doug on a tirade Thursday while it took considerable effort to get Rob to give a few rudimentary minutes to afternoon drive host John Tory.

So, it remains to be seen whether two hours of unmoderated airtime is increasingly seen as a liability to the mayoral administration — which the Ford-friendly Toronto Sun reports recently engaged in a “right-wing huddle” to improve its image for the second half of this term.

Bendixen doesn’t discount the possibility of losing the mayor at some point, either. “Genuinely, I think he likes doing it,” says the program director. “The biggest issue for him is not being able to watch football.”

Nonetheless, Newstalk 1010 is continuing to give live auditions to another headline-grabbing political personality, former Ontario attorney-general Michael Bryant, who will return Sunday at 8 p.m. for an hour that will be more topical than his first program, which focused on homeless shelter residents dealing with addiction.